


Sweetest Friend

by ismellitblue



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Broken Families, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gen, Growing Up, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Other, The Team - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 04:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20558489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ismellitblue/pseuds/ismellitblue
Summary: Conner wonders sometimes if Wally was really the unlucky one.Sure he died young, but he died  before he could turn into what they’ve become.





	Sweetest Friend

**Author's Note:**

> I own only the story idea.

Conner looks over at his old team, and he barely recognizes them anymore-barely recognizes himself.

To his right,Dick sits, phone in hand-texting Barb, his lip will pull upwards from time to time but that’s it.Conner finds that he misses the laughs Dick used to give,full body laughs, shoulders shaking and fingers twitching even as he buried his feet in a bad guy’s face.But those laughs are long gone.To be honest the laughter stopped the day Wally died, but if anyone asks Dick, it was just part of growing up.

“I was Robin then, now, I’m Nightwing,”Conner wonders if he even realizes that,the more he ran from being Batman,the more like the man he became.It’s there in the way he sits,the way he looks at them and the way they all know that if it came down to it,Dick wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing them(himself included) for the mission.

Kaldur lets out a breath,too quiet for the others, but it catches Conner’s attention.When he was new to the world,and knowing nothing but anger.Kaldur’s calmness had called to him.The other still had that inner silence, but Conner knows better than to look for solace in him now.The calm voice, and the serene face, hide the stillness of a snake about to strike.For his duty,Kaldur will drink wine with an _enemy_ and poison an _ally_.You can rage all you want when you find out,but in the end Kaldur does not care.He will be sorry,but not for what he has done- _never that_.Instead Kaldur will apologize-tone gentle-to _you_,on _your_ behalf,for not understanding his actions.

Artemis sits quietly eating a cookie,keeping an eye on all of them while pretending the snack has all her attention.It reminds Conner so much of Wally,it’s almost too painful to watch.Like the others,she too has changed(isn’t that what time does?).To look at her,you do not see the woman living with her sister’s ex.Raising her sister’s child,and pregnant by a man her sister is very clearly still in love with.It’s a very painful form of selfishness-the kind that seeks love no matter the consequences.Sometimes when they go to pick her up(she insists on helping Barb now that she can’t do the physical stuff),Conner sees the heartbreak in her mother’s eyes,but Artemis never does.She only sees the things that make her happy,and she goes for them,to her it doesn’t matter that her mother’s eyes die a little more each time she walks out the door.

A hand settles over his and he turns his gaze over to M’gann.

“Are you alright?”The question(delivered telepathically),feels like a caress, and he smiles up at her,nodding even as a wall she can’t see springs to life in his mind.Her Megan persona has been gone for years,but Conner still sees hints of it.The others think she’s grown,that she ditched the bubbly personality because she was maturing.The two of them know better though-it’s their little inside joke(dark as it is)-she didn’t change,she just got tired of pretending.The woman who didn’t think twice about mind wiping him,is still the same woman shared the same bed with him every night, while going behind his back and plotting with Kaldur and Dick.She’s just learnt the human way of mind control,_lies and manipulation_, and she’s enjoying it-her telepathic skills are exceptional,and this new way of messing with people is adding to her repertoire.Conner sometimes wonders how long it will take everyone to notice what she truly is.

_The end justifies the means._

She believes that more and more as time passes, and Conner doesn’t know which of them will be the first one burned when she stops seeing the line.

He should say something,warn the others,but Conner recognizes that he is too far gone to be of any help.Somewhere between the attempted mind rape and Superman calling him brother instead of son, all the rage went out of him.Or maybe it was when Jon was born and Superman held him,soft look on his face and said…

“…I’m your Daddy,”Like he wasn’t giving away something Conner had wanted his entire life,to someone he’d known for three seconds.

It might have been a lot of things but Conner knows,he’s beyond help.

When he was still raging,there might have been a way to help him,but that’s gone now.He sits still,considers his words,makes sure newbies know what they’re getting into and is quick to diffuse situations before they escalate.

_“You’ve matured so much”_

_“You’re so calm now,”_

_“You remind me of Big Blue more and more each day,”_

They all like to willfully forget that half of him is Luthor.Soft-spoken, cold and logical Luthor, who’d fooled the public into thinking he was a kind person for _decades_.They think him too blunt to be cunning,they forget how good he was at pretending to be a _baddie_,even getting Icicle Jr on his side(and they’re still friendly, an easy favor should Conner ever need it),none of them even remember how he tricked Amazo into getting himself destroyed.

They ignore the cold blooded way he went for the billionaire, exposing his Cadmus origins to the world,and shattering the other’s image.None of them really notice the barbs he flings out during verbal spars,he coats them with just enough truth,to make them seem like a bitter pill to swallow-one that isn’t meant to hurt, but does anyway-none of them ever tastes the malice in the words.

He and M’gann argue telepathically.The others think it’s cute,and she thinks he’s protecting her-that’s not entirely true.If the hero ship should ever go down, he’s going to be as safe as possible.There’s evidence of him warning the kids about their world,offering counsel and being an overall nice guy.His less savory side is buried in M’gann’s subconscious, and even if she were to try an expose him,he has too much dirt on her for her word(let alone her memories as a known mind bender) to hold any weight.

Conner wonders sometimes if Wally was really the unlucky one.Sure he died young, but he died before he could turn into what they’ve become.

_They are monsters,_ and there’s no coming back from the things they’ve done.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a line from the song Hurt(the Johnny Cash version)...what have I become,my sweetest friend...and also by Dick's fever dream.Watching the old team and the people they've grown into it almost felt like they were strangers.


End file.
